YouTube Canada Reveals the top videos of 2017

It’s that time again, to jump into the way-back machine for #YouTube Rewind – YouTube’s annual look back at the year that was.

This year Canadians headed to YouTube to gasp at a sea lion who got a bit too frisky, to giggle as a toddler stole popcorn from Prince Harry, and to fall in love with falling in love.

The country also gathered around screens to watch as April the Giraffe gave birth to her baby, Tajiri, live in front of an audience of 1.2 million, setting a new record for the most popular livestream on YouTube.

And, we all held our breath as we watched a super Canadian standoff as a moose and a wolf squared off in a Northern Ontario lake.

From Eminem’s blistering political cypher at the BET Awards to some perfectly executed ping pong trick shots, these were the moments that had us watching, clicking and sharing.

2017 also saw some major new records broken in music, most notably by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s massive global hit.

Despacito sits at the top of 2017’s top music video list — not just as the most-viewed music video for year, but as the most viewed YouTube video of all time with 4.4 billion views.

Justin Bieber set new records this year – his remix of Despacito, along with his appearance on DJ Khaled’s I’m The One mean that the Biebs can now lay claim to 4 videos that have broken the one billion view threshold.

Taylor Swift’s Look What You Made Me Do set the all-time record for most views in the first 24 hours, earning 43.2 million views in its first day.

Among the top ten debuts in YouTube history, seven were released in 2017.

When it came to movies, we saw studios get even more creative with their pre-marketing campaigns, with both Thor: Ragnarok and Deadpool 2 releasing a series of short films on YouTube that played up their comedic main characters.

But as we wait for the release of the next instalment of Star Wars on December 15, the teaser trailer for this highly anticipated film claims the top spot in this year’s ranking.